Anna Pope
Q: Wesley it’s your first time at session, how are you feeling?
A: “I’m feeling pretty good. A little nervous and uh, a little quiet at times but overall, it’s pretty exciting, pretty engaging. You know?”
Q: What is one thing specifically that you enjoy about being a member of the house?
A: “Um, just being involved at all is pretty nice. As far as it goes for the house, I definitely like the energy of the house. (It’s) A common thing to say about the house, but it’s a pretty nice atmosphere-environment, especially if you haven’t learned anything before in O.I.L. it’s pretty good.”
Q: We are all students right now and it’s kind of crazy since it’s almost toward the end of the semester. How are you doing because it’s day three (of session) and people are getting tired. How is your energy level?
A: “I would say my energy level is somewhere-same as yesterday. I would say it’s getting better. I don’t know if I’m a rare case in that or not, it’s just I don’t know, but I would say I’m doing pretty good.”
Q: How did you join O.I.L.?
A: “I was looking up stuff on the internet regarding Oklahoma State’s SGA (Student Government Association) which is where I also saw O.I.L. as like a separate branch as something like, similar to SGA. And was like, hum, ‘this seems interesting.’ Getting the experience as far as it goes for parliamentary procedure and all of that, getting more used to the whole debating aspects and what not. I saw that (the description of O.I.L.), and I saw the Instagram page for O.I.L. and saw that they were having some welcome meeting on January so and so. So, I went to that.”
Q: Why did you want to learn more of the governmental process?
A: “At this point, I’m not exactly sure what I’m trying to do with my degree. I’m in history and economics which are very broad topics. Like, when I say that I’m in those and if people ask me what I’m going to do with that and I say, ‘good question.’ I feel like at this point it’s just probably best to try to get as much experience as I can in as many facets of what I can try to do as possible. So, I’m thinking at the moment of either going to business school or law school, one of those, or something else. But either way, I feel like it (O.I.L.) helps give good experience and get a more well-rounded education not just in the classroom but outside the classroom as well.”
Q: What is one thing about O.I.L. you have specifically enjoyed right now?
A: “So far, one thing that I have definitely enjoyed is a lot of the comradery in O.I.L.”
Q: Is there anything you could probably do without?
A: “I don’t know. I woke up at 8:45 this morning and that was because I tried to wake up at 7:30 (a.m.) and I couldn’t. You know, if I couldn’t have woken up at like 9:30, I don’t know, that would’ve been nice.”
Q: So, more sleep?
A: “Just a little more.”
Q: What has been one piece of legislation that has particularly stood out to you? A: “I wasn’t very involved until the drink age one (HB OU-524). That was where I was like, ‘let’s try to do something.’ Up until that point I was pretty shy, (because of) other people knowing specifically what they were doing. I was like, I’m just gonna sit back here. But when I decided to give it a shot, it was a very close bill and a very contested bill, I feel like that was a good one for all of the things that I have been hoping to get out of O.I.L. and the things that I have been wishing to contribute to it at the same time.”
